XPS M1330 Design Fault: Letter to Dell

On Apr 3, 2008, I sent a letter (see below) to Dell to inform them of the numerous problems associated with the XPS M1330 laptop. More than a week letter there is still no response.

I am now posting this openly on the Internet. Hopefully, other frustrated M1330 owners will follow suit and prompt an eventual response from Dell.


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Dear Dell Manager,

Firstly, there seems to be an issue with your phone's routing system between the U.S. and Canada. My calls to the Canadian support lines are continuously re-routed to the U.S. XPS support. When this occurs, your service representatives ask me to dial the Canadian numbers, which re-route me back to the U.S. support, thus creating an endless cycle. This problem has been ongoing for about 4 weeks and has occurred on multiple occasions, at different times of the day, and on different days of the week. It may be in your interest to investigate this issue further.

I am contacting you today because, as a former IT professional, I believe that a major design flaw with the XPS M1330 exists. This conclusion was reached based on over 20 hours of troubleshooting and research, including the help of six different Dell technicians and the discovery of a large number of similar cases from online forums (see attached document).

Six unresolved issues that I am experiencing include distorted video leading to hard crashes, non-functional built-in microphone, distorted speaker output, persistent high pitched noise, overheating, and poor build quality. Currently, replacing the motherboard with revision A04 appears to be a valid solution to the first issue (video & crash). However, it does not resolve the other five issues.

Knowing that the video & crash issue can be resolved with a motherboard replacement, I sent the laptop to you on March 27 and received it back on March 2. Surprisingly, I discovered that the motherboard was mistakenly replaced with the A01 revision instead of the A04 that your technician had promised. As a result, my laptop continues to experience the video & crash issue. I also found that a M1330 owner has replaced his motherboard four times and numerous others who had to replace their motherboard more than twice.

The laptop is essential for day-to-day work in my investment management business. I am sure you can agree that going through more motherboard replacements is time consuming and costly for the both of us. To rectify the situation, I attempted to refund the laptop today over the phone. Unfortunately, four redirections later I was still unable to speak to a manager due to your phone's routing problem.

Please authorize the return of my XPS M1330 and refund the purchase price of $2403.51 CAD (see attached invoice). I am confident that a company with your reputation for excellent products and service will want to resolve this matter quickly.

 

one question. how can you send it in on March 27 & get it back March 2?

 

That's probably the reason why Dell hasn't responded back to Mr. Bee yet. Dell currently have a team of engineers and scientists working around the clock to solve this space-time continuum mystery before providing an answer.

 

I'm not certain what you mean by eventual response from Dell. Did you send this as an email or snail mail? Typically land-mail has a much better chance of being escalated.

Furthermore, it seems like this is a technical support issue - I'm not sure what management can do aside from offering you concessions and/or a refund.

 

I meant to say April 2.

 

Email. Will try snail mail now.

 

If you snail mail it, make sure to send it by registered post, so that you are certain that they actually receive it. The marginal cost is nothing especially if they claim they never received your communication.

 

Yep, just sent it using trackable.

 

Man, that sucks.

Good luck getting everything sorted out.

BTW, how do you know what revision motherboard you have? I just got a new m1330 and it'd give me some peace of mine if I knew I had a recent one.

 

A04 should be the most recent revision to the motherboard.

 

adamator, you gotta unscrew the M flap at the back of the laptop. You will see a sticker with the revision number and serial number. If it's not A04, you should right away replace it.